Mum who cheated death in Manchester terror attack tells how she kept maimed girl, 14, alive — as city and NHS staff show strength in the face of evil
Kim and Phil Dick, both 54, cheated death as they were blown into air just yards from suicide bomber
A HEROINE helps to keep a maimed schoolgirl alive inside the bombed Manchester Arena, unaware of what has happened to her own daughter and granddaughter.
Kim Dick, 54, was waiting for the two girls to emerge after Ariana Grande’s concert when Salman Abedi blew himself up on the concourse.
She and husband Phil were just yards from the terrorist.
The couple miraculously cheated death as they were blown into the air.
Kim staggered to her feet and saw the 14-year-old girl terribly injured amid the carnage.
Speaking hours later as she was saluted as one of the Angels of Manchester, the mum of three revealed she yelled at her hubby: “The girls! The girls!”
He headed off to look for daughter Tamla, 17, and their granddaughter Sasha, 15.
Kim said of the girl she raced to help: “Her long blonde hair was shrivelled up, singed.
A plastic bag had melted in her hair. Blood was coming out of her mouth and down her shoulder. I grabbed her and she was a puppet
“A plastic bag had melted in her hair. Blood was coming out of her mouth and down her shoulder.
“I grabbed her and she was a puppet. I got her through the foyer and she collapsed in my arms.
“I put her down and blood was coming out of her mouth and I thought she would have choked.
“Her eyes were staring up and I lifted her up and her little arms were broken.
“She had shrapnel in both her legs, her shoulder and her face.
“She lost pints and pints of blood in the time I was there.
"We made makeshift compressions to press on wounds on her legs and shoulder.
“I was holding her up and talked to her, asking her name.
"She was so brave this young girl.
“She managed to tell me her home phone number and I called her mum, who was in bits on the other end of the phone.
“I said, ‘Your daughter’s here, she has been injured, but she’s OK. We are with her’.”
Kim, from Bradford, recalled how the youngster asked: “Am I going to be OK?”
She told her: “You are — your dad is coming’.”
The gran said: “Her eyes were staring ahead.”
A PC helped Kim tend to the girl as colleagues spent an hour checking that the scene of devastation was safe before letting paramedics in.
Meanwhile husband Phil faced the grim task of looking at bodies to see if their own two girls were among the dead.
The bomber was at the centre of it all. Only his legs were left
The IT company owner, 54, said: “There was smoke and blood everywhere. I had to look for my girls and see if they had been hurt.
“The bomber was at the centre of it all. Only his legs were left.”
Finally he managed to get his daughter on the phone, and she told him they were safe.
He then helped his wife with the girl — last night believed to be Freya Lewis, of Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.
Phil used a table that was selling merchandise as a makeshift stretcher for her.
His wife said: “It took so long for help to come. I was holding her all the time, crying, ‘We need help, we need help’.
“Every time I moved a little bit she screamed in pain.
“Another girl aged 15 was crying and had been hit in the leg.”
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Kim was also concerned for a girl called Aaliyah — also 15.
She said: “I just wanted to hug her but I couldn’t leave the other girl.”
Last night Freya’s sister posted online that the schoolgirl was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
She described her as “Harry Styles’ biggest fan” and issued a cheeky plea for the One Direction star to visit her.
The injured girl’s family said in a message to Kim and Phil: “We cannot thank you enough. She is in the high dependency unit and she is doing alright. We are very hopeful.”
Phil said: “I am convinced Kim is responsible for that little girl being here. She saved her life.”
The concert at the Manchester Arena had been a sell-out, meaning around 21,000 were heading for the exits when the suicide bomber struck.
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They were mainly teenage girls. Many were expecting to be picked up by parents but were unable to find them in the mayhem.
Cabbies offered free rides to get them to safety — with some drivers making the journey from Liverpool to pick up people from the venue.
Emily Bolton wrote online: “Muslim taxi drivers giving free lifts, Sikh temples giving food & beds, locals giving blood in the morning. Proud to call Manchester home.”
Taxi driver Abdullah Vavdiwala, 39, was among those who switched off their meters. He said: “The ambulances were taking the casualties. But we took those who needed help to places of safety.
“Any little help we could give, we did. In these kinds of situations, you do what you can.”
Moved locals threw open their doors to those dazed and lost.
Cuppas and snacks were doled out to strangers.
Refreshments were also laid on for the emergency services — with cafes opening into the early hours for free tea and coffee.
Supermarkets donated food and drink for injured youngsters.
At Manchester Royal Infirmary boxes of crisps, chocolate bars and soft drinks arrived in a delivery from Asda.
Manchester City FC’s Etihad Stadium was transformed into a staging point for volunteers wanting to help victims.
Its plush Chairman’s Club, where gourmet match day hospitality costs £300 a head, became an emergency overnight centre.
Residents took bags of food there.
Poppy Conlon, 25, and Hayley Adamson, 23, who both work in catering, said: “We live in Manchester and want to help anyone we can.
“We’ve brought food, magazines, chocolates, crisps. We’re devastated and massively shocked. You don’t think something like this is ever going to happen here.”
The tweet #RoomforManchester started trending as people living near the concert venue offered beds to those stranded.
Hotels gave away spare rooms.
At the same time frantic parents posted photos of loved ones with phone numbers and the hashtag #MissingInManchester.
The appeals for information were retweeted thousands of times across the internet until families were reunited.
At hospitals where the most injured were taken more than 100 NHS staff came in on their day off.
Huge queues at blood donor centres saw people having to be turned away.
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham praised emergency services for working through “the most difficult circumstances imaginable”.
Political parties suspended their General Election campaigns out of respect for the victims.
At the arena people flocked to lay flowers.
Jake Taylor, 26, who used to work there as a security guard, said: “You can’t stop people going through from Victoria Station to the arena.
“Like every other terrorist attack in the world, you can’t stop it.
“It’s good how fast everyone reacted. I wanted to do my part and bring water and sandwiches.”
One man summed up the city’s defiance in a message on the pavement.
It proclaimed: “We are grieving today, but we are strong.”
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